"Por la raza todo, fuera de la raza nada"
Posted on 08/21/2017 9:28:22 AM PDT by Rebelbase
[Snip] Nearly 2 years after sailing from Cadiz in 1502, Columbus and his restless, disgruntled crew were stranded on the north coast of Jamaica, confined to worm-eaten, leaking ships. The native inhabitants were no longer awed by the newcomers. Annoyed by their voracious appetites and angry at the depredations of crew members, who had plundered several villages, the population was hostile and would no longer supply food.
Weary and ill, Columbus had withdrawn to his ship. There, he pondered his precarious situation. Returning to the stained pages of the Ephemerides, he noted Regiomontanus's prediction of a total eclipse of the moon on Feb. 29, 1504.
Despite these uncertainties, Columbus was desperate enough to take a chance. On the day before the predicted eclipse, he summoned the leaders of the native inhabitants and warned them through an interpreter that if they did not cooperate with him, the moon would disappear from the sky on the following night.
Amazingly, the prediction proved correct. As the full moon rose in the east on the appointed night, Earth's shadow was already biting into its face. As the moon rose higher, the shadow became larger and more distinct until it completely obscured the moonThe natives were sufficiently frightened by this unexpected occurrence and by Columbus's uncanny prediction to beg forgiveness and appeal to him to restore their moon to the sky. Columbus responded that he wished to consult with his deity. He retired to his quarters, using a half-hour sandglass to time how long the eclipse would last. Some time later, when the eclipse had reached totality, he emerged to announce that the moon, in answer to his prayers, would gradually return to its normal brightness.
The next day, the natives brought food and did all they could to please Columbus and his crew. Columbus himself used the timing of the eclipse to calculate his ship's longitude, but his answer proved wildly erroneous, leaving nothing but a faint red disk in the sky.
Rum, sodomy and the lash
What does this sentence mean?
“Columbus himself used the timing of the eclipse to calculate his ship’s longitude, but his answer proved wildly erroneous, leaving nothing but a faint red disk in the sky.”
His calculation left a faint red disk in the sky??
Gotta be a C&P issue.
until it completely obscured the moonThe natives were sufficiently
I think that should have read:
unit it completely obscured the moon, leaving nothing but a faint red disk in the sky.
and the last sentence should have ended with
but his answer proved wildly erroneous.
Bookmark.
I file this under myth. Lunar eclipses are common enough where the natives would have seen them plenty of times before. A solar eclipse would have been more believable.
"Por la raza todo, fuera de la raza nada"
The Mayans predicted eclipses to hold power over people. If you could tell them when the sun would go dark they believed you were in pretty good with the snake.
In the future writers will tell of the primitive people terrified of carbon dioxide.
Rampant child sacrifice, so common in the future Americas, was so much more civilized.
Humanity is fallen: ALL humanity.
eclipse ping
Funny, the comic book Tintin in Inca Land has this exact same scheme to avoid them getting executed.
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